AWalker@RED.RUTGERS.EDU (*Hobbit*) (09/24/85)
By now many of us have experienced how a newly cut over equal access area tends to "forget" to make special allowances for public phones. While this is fun in itself, my question is: By what mechanism does the long distance carrier determine that the calling number is a public phone, so it can arrange for different billing? Does the LOC pass a special packet to it saying "this is a pay phone, do whatever you have to do"? Does the carrier keep its own table of public phones for each area? How is it that the bug is present with some carriers and not others? Why does it exist at all? It seems to me that the sensible way to do things would be for the local company to tell the carrier that simply billing the call to the originating number will lose. A related question: Why is it that some areas insist that you dial 10nnn 1+?? Here in Jersey, if you dial 10nnn and the number you want, you get a recording that you must "first dial a 1". I thought that 1+ was implicit in 10nnn+. Down in DC, where I was last weekend, 10nnn+number works just fine in some areas, but others want the redundant 1. And a comment: For some carriers, 10nnn# will simply connect you to the carrier switch, as if you dialed the 950 number. Sprint does this, some of the others might. It's not universal, though, and the *LOC* handles such a call, giving you a local recording if you can't do it. Weird!! Now, if only they gave you better *audio*. _H* -------